MP Govt to Scrap Direct Election of Mayors

Bhopal: The Madhya Pradesh Congress government has decided to conduct indirect election of mayors and revoke direct election. Now, the elected corporators will chose the mayor.

This decision was taken during the Cabinet meeting on Wednesday. The Cabinet decided to amend the rules governing municipal body elections and reinstate the earlier system of indirect election of mayors and chairpersons.

Law Minister PC Sharma said, “Corporators will be elected by voters, and elected corporators will elect the mayor. There will be no direct election of mayor.”

The amendment also includes delimitation of ward councils two months ahead of the municipal elections, instead of six months. And if an MLA, MP or corporator gives wrong information in his affidavit, they will be liable for imprisonment for up to six months and/or a fine of up to Rs 25,000. Municipal body elections are due in January next year.

The proposal to conduct direct election of mayors was introduced by Digvijay Singh-led Congress government in 1998. Since then, the voters in Madhya Pradesh have been directly electing mayors and chairpersons of municipal bodies. In 1992, the 74th Amendment of the Constitution gave constitutional status to municipal bodies and states to conduct elections.

“It is surprising that a decision taken by Digvijaya is being changed by another Congress government,” said Leader of Opposition (LoP), Gopal Bhargava, adding that Congress is insulting its own leader and Congress leaders are unable to explain why this decision was taken by the cabinet.

There are three other states where voters directly elect mayors—Chhattisgarh, Jharkhand and Uttar Pradesh.

When contacted, state Congress media vice president Abhay Dubey said that under Article 243 (W) of Constitution, the state has the right to conduct municipal elections as it desires. “Now, the Kamal Nath government is returning to indirect elections because in 15 years of BJP rule, there was rampant corruption and perceivable arrogance of mayors,” Dubey said.

“Once a mayor got elected, he did not listen to the corporators,” Dubey argued.

The state BJP has strongly opposed indirect election of mayors, saying it was “anti-democracy” and would promote horse-trading and other malpractices.

“Congress is afraid of an insulting defeat in the civic polls. People are ready to support the BJP in the civic elections, but the Congress is trying to encourage horse-trading. The Cabinet’s decision must be revoked,” said former CM Shivraj Singh Chouhan.

BJP state spokesperson Rahul Kothari has also written a letter to Congress President Sonia Gandhi, recalling the promises made by then Congress President Rahul Gandhi during a rally. “Rahul Gandhi promised to promote direct elections of mayor to build smart cities, if voted to power during election campaign, but, the MP government is scrapping it, keeping Gandhi’s promise at bay.”

On the other hand, the Congress pointed out that BJP-ruled Maharashtra and Gujarat also have indirect election of mayors.